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The story of “The Kissing Hand” comforted Sophie Rodriguez when she was “a little kid.”
But now that she’s a well-adjusted kindergartner at St. Catherine of Siena School in Metairie, Sophie thought it might be time to give her beloved book to someone who could really use it.
“It’s about this raccoon that doesn’t want to go to school and then his mom kisses the middle of his hand,” said Sophie, explaining the plot of the children’s book written by Audrey Penn. “The mother raccoon shows him ‘the kissing hand’ so he won’t feel alone at school,” she said.
Such heartfelt acts of thoughtfulness and generosity filled kindergarten classrooms at St. Catherine of Siena last month as students dutifully brought in their favorite books for the purpose of rebuilding flood-ravaged classroom libraries at Westside Elementary School in Scott, Louisiana. The youngsters personalized each donation with a sticker bearing their signature.
“We’re catapulting off the Year of Mercy and encouraging all of our students to be disciples of mercy throughout the year,” said Michelle Macicek, St. Catherine’s coordinator of religious education, explaining that the schoolwide “Mercy Project” has every grade level doing something tangible to help others in the local community and beyond. The following service projects already have been completed:
• Students in pre-K3 and 4 collected coloring books, stickers, crayons and markers for Children’s Hospital in New Orleans and wrote “Get Well Soon” cards for the young patients.
• Kindergartners collected non-perishable items for the food pantry at the Rebuild Center at St. Joseph Church in the CBD, which supplies a hot lunch each weekday to the homeless and hungry. The youngsters also tucked in original prayers inspired by their school’s patron saint, St. Catherine of Siena.
• First graders thought about their favorite books and purchased new copies of those favorites for Byrd Avenue Elementary in Bogalusa, which flooded last March. A note from each young donor – explaining why he or she liked the book – was inserted into the pages.
• Second graders collected bottled water and labeled every container with a Bible verse. The water was given to St. Catherine of Siena’s St. Vincent de Paul conference, which distributes food on Thursdays.
• Third graders brought in gently worn shoes for donation to Soles4Souls, a non-profit organization that provides shoes to underprivileged children throughout the world. A prayer composed by St. Catherine’s third-grade classes was placed inside each pair.
• Fourth graders assembled “Goodnight Bags” for children at the New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter. Each bag contained a book, socks, a stuffed animal, a blanket and a toothbrush.
• Middle school students – those in grades five through seven – broke into groups of three to make fleece blankets for the residents of Covenant House. The proceeds from their on-campus sales of rosary bracelets also were donated to Covenant House.
The hope is by serving those in need, “the children will have a better understanding of compassion and be able to see what mercy looks like,” Macicek said.
Students also are delving more deeply into the spiritual and corporal acts of mercy in their religion classes and learning how St. Catherine of Siena herself lived them out in Italy in the 14th century. Known for helping those in need during the plagues of her time, she would often encourage others by saying: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire!”
“St. Catherine was very interested in helping and being with the sick and the poor,” Macicek said. “She didn’t care about earthly things, only about those in need and serving God in that way.”
Macicek will add a service-learning dimension to the Mercy Project this school year by challenging each grade to identify an area of outreach on its own by researching newspaper articles and other media reports.
“I want them to be able to find where a need is and then set up an action plan – ‘Here are some needs, but where do we see the most need and what do we want to do about it?’” Macicek said.
To make sure their students know that they, too, are willing to “walk the walk” of mercy, St. Catherine’s faculty, staff and administration used part of their summer break to prepare and serve a meal at the Rebuild Center, Macicek said.
St. Catherine’s seventh graders also serve lunch monthly at the Rebuild Center during the school year.
Tags: Kids' Clarion